Practical illustrations of EMBEDDED partnerships

After a little feedback, perhaps my intentionally-vague pitch about the types of things we can offer a partner group for Embedded is just … too vague. Allow me to try to clarify the kinds of things we can do here.

This whole initiative is NOT just about wanting a group to come along and pump a bunch of money into us for the show (however, as theatrical mercenaries it’s also not something we’d turn away). We want to develop better relationships with those already working within our community and try to help them in their efforts. Any partnership potentially puts us in front of new people, and that is “what’s in it for us.”.

I know for a fact based on where we are and our past experience that almost all of these tickets for Embedded will sell on their own. It’s not about us trying to hawk our tickets. I really feel we have an obligation to make this show an even bigger and better event, and hopefully do something good for other groups along the way in a critical time.

My thoughts, specifically, of some of the things we can easily do:

A group night at the theater (this only option that requires money changing hands from the group to us): Buy a block of tickets 12+ (up to 98) at a greatly reduced rate. A group ticket is normally $20.83, but we’re willing to go steeper for the right partnership. If all 98 seats are bought, we can possibly go as low as $15 per ticket. Those tickets can then either be gifted to that group’s volunteers/members/donors or be sold at a higher rate to their membership as a fundraising tool.

The group could also bring a speaker to talk before the show or after the show (which could also involve the artists, or not). This could be part of the greater fundraising effort, to make it more of an event.

It’s also possible that this group for a group sale or buyout could contract catering from TBPAC or find an eatery willing to donate food for a reception before the show, adding the the event.

We can offer space in front of the theater for manned tables to be present before or after show. Those tables can collect donations, provide information or sign folks up for their group.

A practical illustration of this first idea: Group A wants to do ‘Group A night’ at Embedded. They purchase 50 tickets from us at the reduced rate of $X each, get food donated from a restaurant and engage a speaker to show up and do a preshow talk. Instant event! We advertise Aug. X is Group A night everywhere we can with the hopes they’d do the same. They sell their fundraiser tickets for $Y, make $Z off each ticket sold (the difference between our hard cost and the price of their event ticket). We’ve done this before with other groups (that aren’t the greatest fit for this show) successfully, and know there have to be partners out there for this.

We give YOU money: We’re also open to just hosting a night for an organization where you don’t have to purchase anything. We can do ‘Group B night’ at the show where the group still can provide a speaker for pre or post show, a table and volunteers for the front of the theater that night to display their info or sign folks up for whatever they do, we can insert their info into the programs, and for the right group we’d even be open to making a certain amount of each ticket sold that night be a donation back to that group. We’ve successfully donated a portion of proceeds for a specific night back to a worthy group. A group may not make as much in return as they would off of a bigger fundraiser night, but there’s a lot less work to put into it as well.

We’re also open to partnering for a group for the whole run – such as having a voter registration drive through the whole run of the show every night before/after the show. We’d offer space for a table and help you get the word out for the run of the show. Again, we’re not asking for money for that.

Now, above and beyond all this, if there was a law firm or media company or PAC or something that wanted to outright sponsor/underwrite the show, we certainly would never turn your money down. We expect at least 1,300 to see this show, more if we add performances. This is a great opportunity and it’s important to us to help those in our community trying to make a difference.